February 12

World Press Photo of the Year 2015

By Ella Miista

World Press Photo of the Year is probably be most prestigious award a photojournalist could dream of having. It’s like an Oscar, just with less Twitter hashtags and expensive dresses involved. And, you know, in many instances the photographers are risking their lives to get the shot. Their archive is immense, filled with emotion. The pictures covey fear, dread and sadness, but also hope and kindness. It’s photojournalism at its best; single images that really do say a thousand words. Today they announced this year’s winner Mads Nissen. The Danish photographer’s image portrayed a gay couple during an intimate moment (that makes safe for work watching, honestly). It has the aesthetic of art photography, but it tells a story current and topical. Taken in St. Petersburg, Russia, it’s part of a project of Nissen’s, entitled Homophobia in Russia. He spent over a year with activist groups in Russia, documenting their quest for liberation. WPP jury chair Michele McNally, the director of photography at The NY Times said, “The winning image needs to be aesthetic, to have impact, and to have the potential to become iconic. This photo is aesthetically powerful, and it has humanity.” She described the image to the British Journal of Photography as ‘a picture of love and hate’. “In a lot of countries, being gay is a very dangerous thing to be. In certain areas, they’re persecuted. But the picture speaks to me purely of love,” she added. Nissen’s work stands out against all the graphic content that is used to make statements. He isn't trying to terrorise or traumatise. He isn't selling a product or even pointing a finger at a problem. his work is the complete opposite of robust, but still entirely meaningful. It says it is love that will save us. In total 97 912 images were entered into the competition. That’s a lot of images. We’ve picked our favourites from this year’s winners here: [caption id="attachment_31174" align="alignnone" width="1056"] ACCUSED by Liu Song[/caption] This image is a of a woman in China held chained at a police station. She is thought to have engaged in sex trade. [caption id="attachment_31175" align="alignnone" width="960"] A CRIME WITHOUT PUNISHMENT by Jerome Sessini[/caption] Shot down by a Russian-made missile, the Malaysian Airlines flight crashed with 298 passengers in eastern Ukraine. This is remains of a passenger from flight MH17. [caption id="attachment_31176" align="alignnone" width="1080"] RESCUE OPERATION by Massimo Sestini[/caption] Shipwrecked people rescued by the Italian navy. The Italian government rescued over 170 000 people last year, from countries like Syria, Nigeria and Eritrea. [caption id="attachment_31178" align="alignnone" width="900"] CHRISTMAS FACTORY by Ronghui Chen[/caption] Christmas, made in China. This is an image from a factory that makes Christmas decorations. Wei, the 19-year-old worker has to change the mask five times a day because of the red colour dust. [caption id="attachment_31179" align="alignnone" width="1080"] WARIA: BEING A DIFFERENT MUSLIM by Fulvio Bugani[/caption] Waria is a combination of two Indonesian words; 'wanita' for woman and 'pria' for man. It's a word used to describe transgender women. This is a LGBT activist Shinta Ratri with other transgender women. She opened an Islamic boarding school for transgender people. Though Islam forbids men to dress as women and vice verse, but the Koran doesn't allow people to be classified based on gender. [caption id="attachment_31181" align="alignnone" width="1080"] ACT OF FORGIVENESS by Arash Khamooshi[/caption] Iran is big on executions but the rule is it must be carried out before sunrise. Balal was due to be hanged for the killing his childhood friend. Just before the sunrise the victim's mother however decided to pardon Balal, and thus spare his life, by slapping his face. The images of this act of forgiveness resulted in 25 other murder convicts not being executed. [caption id="attachment_31172" align="alignnone" width="1080"] JON AND ALEX by Mads Nissen[/caption]